for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> what do you think a tree can be? can it be stronger than steel? can a treat be biodegradable plastic? can it be fuel for our cars, or clothing, or medicine that fights cancer? with our tree cell technology, we think it can. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> we are going to die. we have 90-year-old people. >> this week on "inside washington," sandy's birdknoll october surprise. >> i want to thank the president

personally. >> how many votes are these pictures worth? >> we have heavy hearts with the suffering going on in a major part of our country. >> how do you compete with a natural disaster? climate change? neither candidate wants to go near it. the new unemployment number -- how will it play in the polling place? the jeep jobs in china flap. >> obama sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> it is an outrageous lie. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we thought this was going to be a pre-election broadcast and all we had to do was handicap the election.

along came hurricane sandy. in politics, a wise man told me once that you can never see around the corner. i don't want to minimize the tragic human dimensions of this storm and its aftermath, but this is a political program and the election is next tuesday, so here goes. new jersey gov. chris christie prior to the hurricane. >> let's give you the plane ticket back to chicago you have current. >> after sandy, he was thanking him. >> i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for the people of our state. >> he has put his heart and soul into making sure that the people of new jersey bounce back stronger than before. >> in the past several days, voters have seen the president on tv, the white house, the red cross with gov. christie, hugging victims, looking, well, presidential in a time of crisis. with the election practically on our doorstep, how will the

politics of sandy and its aftermath play out? >> good for president obama. at a time of disaster, the only elected officials who have any opportunity to perform her governors, mayors, or the president. senators and members of congress are dying to get on camera. chuck schumer is the only one i know who did. this is a real job. the president handled himself well, showed himself to be confident and compassionate, as governor christie said, and "endorsement" of the president is nothing but a plus. >> nina? >> you really have to notice that president clinton build up fema, the bush administration took it apart and paid a price after katrina, and this president built it back up

again, put a professional in charge, but people who knew what to do, and it is paying off. >> colby? >> it also draws a sharp contrast between the candidates. you have president obama pushing the federal efforts and citing fema as his vehicle, and you had romney last year saying he would get rid of fema, saying that he would turn it back to the states and showing no appreciation of the role that fema plays i tragedy. >> this is a nightmare for romneycare he is in tough spot. -- a nightmare for romney. is in a tough spot. >> you are going for a woman voters, swing voters in ohio, the so-called waitress vote, this is an ad for a president who cares about you.

it is terrible for romney. maybe the polls are wrong, but if you're looking at the polls right now, obama has got it. >> did romney have momentum or was that just republican spin? >> he did have momentum after the first debate -- >> we have had a three since then -- >> what obama was never able to recapture the lead. >> i cannot say with certainty that there was momentum, no momentum. i cannot tell. you look at the polls hour after hour and you get a sense that this thing is very tight, even when you go to some of the battle ground states. >> yes, the first debate made an enormous difference in the campaign. it allowed mitt romney to reintroduce himself with no opposition on the part of the president as the moderate

massachusetts reasonable mitt. gone was the saber-rattling mitt, keep out the foreigners mitt, round up the suspects mitt and send them to practice -- [laughter] he became reasonable, intelligent, poised, forget the cayman islands and the swiss bank accounts. frank bruni of "the new york times" made a telling point -- the first debate was important because it may president obama in the next two debates more truculent than is ordinarily his norm, and he overcompensated for his miserable performance in the first debate trying to catch up. >> apparently new york mayor michael bloomberg did not care much about the debates, but he did care about sandy and he endorsed the president. how much traction does that give him in the battle ground states?

>> i am not sure it does. it was interesting, the reasons he gave before the endorsement, the unmentioned topic in the campaign, climate change, which he says that at least the president is taking note of and it is not happening on the other side. >> bloomberg is a popular guy in the east, but in other corners he is not. the angry white males -- the question is, are the angry white males going to come out of the woods -- [laughter] and save romney? are they going to desert the president and his division numbers? bloomberg does not help obama with that. >> i disagree. mayor bloomberg is a big help with the very important constituency of a gun control, gay rights, people who want to limit the size of soft drinks.

overlooked. >> what about angry white males in ohio? >> this has been the real problem of the romney campaign, tot while obama's reach whites in general and white males in particular has been really less than mediocre, the fact is that in ohio, optimism and confidence of ohio has absolutely skyrocketed. quinnipiac showed this week that 52% of people in ohio think things getting better, only 17% think they're getting worse -- >> they are getting better in ohio. >> they are getting better in ohio, there is good news, and white males understand that the auto bailout is crucial and indispensable to this news. >> we will get to climate change next. >> for us to say that this was once in a generation and will

not happen again, i think it would be shortsighted. climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality. >> new york governor andrew cuomo is also saying that 100- year storms are coming every two years. hate to bring his name off, but al gore predicted this. >> sure did. >> isn't this another demonstration of how antiquated our infrastructure is? they have the sea barriers and the netherlands. >> one document says that is a heavy jet stream that locked sandy in is caused by some of the warming taking place in the arctic. hence global warming is a problem that we need to address. >> al gore did not talk about the information he was running for president, and these guys

did not talk about it, neither one of them -- >> when he was running in 1988 he talked about it. >> if you had the mitt romney it was governor running against this obama, their positions would not be that different. mitt romney was a big endorser of cap-and-trade. now he has disavowed it. >> there is a huge disconnect, because the political culture is still full of deniers. unbelievable to go through three debates and not talk about climate change at all. >> there has been a lot of advertising by interest groups to sort of put forth the idea of fossil fuels and negate the idea of climate warming, and

that has had an effect. if you look at the polling data, it used to be accepted fact and it is not anymore. >> in september, one of nasa's satellites went dark. they had a back up a satellite, and that was able to tell us that this big storm was coming. they are not spending money, they are cutting back on this kind of stuff. if we don't have those satellites -- >> while we have not been paying attention to the way we spend our money, state, local, and federal has got more to transfer payments, writing checks for people for disabilities because they are old, health care, whatever, and that means less money for infrastructure. there is not the money at any level, state, local, or federal to do the things like eisenhower did in the 1950's or that government has done all along. the money's not there for that, but the need is there. >> if you compare us, mark, to

other advanced nations, we are way down the list in terms of infrastructure. >> we are, and i do think that the barriers is a serious matter to discuss. but i don't think it is an alternative. it is not climate change or the barriers. there is no reason we cannot do both. climate change is not going to be reversed in a hurry, but we have to address it. >> whether man made it or nature made it, the sea is rising. >> absolutely. >> whether man made it nature made it, that we have to fix the electrical grid. >> but you go to virginia and pennsylvania and they talk about more coal production. infrastructure it is important. we are going to have to put resources in there. >> we are never going to get there until we get on is about

-- the percentage of money spent on government has shifted from building highways and bridges and schools and those things with which we associate government to instead writing checks for individuals, for whatever reason. politicians will not be honest about this. until they are, he will not have the money to fix the electrical grid or do any of that. >> would have made sense for obama to put health care on the back burner when he had majorities in the house and senate? >> yes. >> that is really not clear, because one of the things, the gold in obamacare, is to reduce costs -- >> good luck with that. >> they are trying to do it. >> 30 million people have access to care that they did not have before. that is not something i would trade away quickly. >> the october jobs report. >> i know what change looks like

because i fought for it. >> america needs a real change. we are going to give it to the american people. >> no more mr. nice guy. now, the october jobs report. unemployment, 7.9%, up from 7.8. on 175,000 jobs added in october, also the august and september numbers revised upwards. but it still went up. does that help or hurt the president and his reelection campaign, mark? >> it helps. not a dramatic breakthrough, but it shows progress, but it is snail-like progress. at this rate, we will not get back to 5% unemployment until his daughters are grandmothers. it is progress, but not anything -- >> but you also see signs of improvement in consumer confidence.

the housing market is coming back. there are reasons people are optimistic. the problem is on the corporate side, where they are not making investments, and i think it is because of the uncertainty about the election. >> not just the election, is what politicians do after the election. >> there was also good news on home prices, productivity, auto sales, manufacturing, retail sales. those numbers were pretty good. >> that is because people are feeling better. >> if so, why around his numbers fire? > -- why aren't his numbers higher? barack obama's? >> there is always a delay. we have gone through an excruciating four years, and assuming it gets better, i think it will no matter who is president -- >> a lot of businessmen think there is going to be a

correction on wall street, and if we go for the fiscal cliff and government cannot get its act together, as usual, the market could go down and a big way. >> obama should be in worse shape given the way the economy has gone the last few years. >> politico is reporting that liberals are worried that if obama is reelected, he will make a deal -- >> i hope so. >> i hope so, too. obviously, they know what message sells. even eric cantor, obstructionist-in-chief, said that we need to put aside our differences and reach compromise. there has obviously been message research. >> can't we all of this get along, mark? >> rodney king for lieutenant governor. right direction, wrong track number, 41% think we are headed

in the right direction. dramatic improvement. how would you feel that the president is reelected? 50% feel positive. these are the numbers in the same nbc poll from eight years ago when george w. bush won 50 .7% of the vote. that is the parallel of this election. 2004, 2012, incumbent, beleaguered, a close election, ohio decided. -- ohio is at the epicenter today. and that is the story from washington. [laughter] >> thus spaketh -- there is the benediction. >> things are a lot shakier now than they were then, i think that people sense that. how bad does the crisis have to be before congress' response?

the wall street crash, going over the cliff? >> romney's numbers on the economy are still better than his. >> slightly. >> the senate -- is it going to go republican, state democratic? >> stay democratic barely. anybody disagree with me? >> kaine and george allen in virginia, who is going to win? >> kaine. >> kaine. >> kaine. >> kaine. that is 8 for kaine. >> massachusetts -- elizabeth warren r. scott brown? >> warren. >> i think warren. >> sharon brown and lh. >> casey in pennsylvania. >> kerrey in nebraska, which nobody would have predicted --

>> kerrey the democrat. medal of honor winner. >> he has the endorsement of chuck hagel and alan simpson, both serious republican leaders in their day in the senate. >> it is close in the poll. chris murphy wins in connecticut. linda mcmahon's second race, millions of dollars. joe donnelly in indiana and not against mourdock. -- hanging on against mourdock. jon tester in montana absolute dead heat. heidekamp in north dakota, r

an a tour of the campaign, even with the republican -- think.ill is close, i >> do you see much ticket splitting? a vote for obama or romney and then vote for republican or democrat for the senate? >> i think we are a more polarized nation. >> ticket splitting would be good because there is an interesting theory that it would be helpful to romney if the democrats kept control of the senate by a vote or two because it would allow romney to tell the crazies in his own party that i have to make a deal with the democrats. >> well -- >> back at bain? >> i'm saying, if elected, it might not be a tragedy. >> the republicans are not only

going to keep the house, and they all will keep most of their majority. this is one place where redistricting and a late money from super pacs has made a difference. >> crystal ball, colby. >> i see barack obama -- i talked to a former republican chairman, could judiciously looks at the numbers, and i looked at his numbers, i see barack obama winning electoral college by 286 votes. >> could it be possible for him to win the electoral college and lose the popular vote? >> i understand it is mathematically possible. >> how likely is it? >> more likely than before, because sandy affects turned out in blue states. new jersey is a blue state,

where obama ran up a popular margin. >> you will get those numbers if they don't get to the polls -- won't get those numbers if they don't get to the polls. >> what about early voting? who does it help? >> people claim to know that, but -- >> there is a lot of spin. >> no, spin? >> people claim to know, and i don't know how they really can. >> spin, right here in our nation's capital. >> both sides are hiring a lot of lawyers to be there on election night, so there's contested votes and we could spin it into wednesday and thursday. >> but i have the envelope, please? >> how many races, how many states would be unresult because of sandy? >> it depends on the closeness

of the race. most of the damage, and i'm sure this is divine intervention on the part of conservatives, occurred in blue states, whether it is connecticut, new jersey, new york, pennsylvania . >> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> one of the most flagrantly dishonest ads i can remember in my political career. >> chrysler's ceo angrily denies that they are shipping jobs to china. >> they are adding jobs in toldeo. >> -- toledo. >> this was an act of not hail mary pass in ohio. this was an act of absolute desperation.

obama is going to carry ohio, we got to do something -- don't do it, it is going to come back and bite us. it has. he is basically accusing the president of the united states with his bailout of plotting with gm and chrysler to send american jobs overseas to china. this is beyond a guide double parking outside in northridge on christmas -- >> if mark is correct and there was an internal fight in the campaign, and we think there had to be, because this is a hot pants on fire -- a pants on fire ad, the person who decides that in the end when there is that kind of a fight is the candidate. >> well -- >> no -- four years ago, mccain decided not to run ads on the

jeremiah wright stuff. his decision. similarly, this had to be a romney decision. >> i was in china a couple of years ago and the thing that really struck me was the extent to which the u.s. car manufacturers had penetrated that market. >> but we want to build them here. >> we do build some of them here and some of them get finish over there. but penetrating those markets is helping our country. >> to what degree of the shamelessness it to campaign to engage in towards the end -- this is important, that mccain gave an order to do the right thing, that we will not do race. i'm sure his staff would have done it if he had not ordered that. >> in the interest of fairness, let's point out that the obama campaign is something egregiously outrageous and

indefensible. they aired a spot in ohio with a statement about mitt romney, "he is not one of us." that is codeword for the worst form of bigotry in this country. >> last word. see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.

>> countdown, where the race stands as it enters the last